Page 52 of Storm's Embrace

“Delicious, my good man” Zoë said, daintily wiping at her mouth as Miriam held in a laugh at her daughter’s theatrics.

Eli chuckled. “Good. And see, no snails or fish eggs anywhere.” He turned his gaze on Miriam, the hazel depths of his eyes darkening. “So…”

Miriam tilted her head at Eli’s flushing cheeks when he didn’t say anything more. “Are you feeling okay?”

“I am.” He pulled his gaze from hers and then checked over the table. “So, would you like anything else?”

“Can we have cake now?” Zoë asked with a toothless grin.

“Zoë.” Miriam doubted her daughter would be able to stuff one more thing in her belly after all she’d already eaten.

“It’s okay.” Eli’s smile at her set her heart racing. “I mean, I hope it’s okay. I’ve actually got a small cake coming out for us to share.”

Zoë clapped her hands. “Is it chocolate?”

“It sure is.” Eli took a deep breath and focused back on Miriam. “So…”

“You said that a minute ago.” Miriam said with a slight frown. “Are you sure something’s not wrong?”

“Positive,” he said before standing. “But there is something I need to take care of.”

“Okay.” She tilted her head and then her eyes widened when he got on one knee beside her daughter’s chair.

“Zoë, can I ask you an important question?”

Zoë nodded, her eyes going round. “Uh huh.”

Miriam quietly gasped as he pulled a small pink velvet box from his suit jacket pocket. Zoë sat forward in her chair, her gaze brightening as he opened it up. Inside was a small ring with multicolored flowers made up of various stones set with small diamonds in the center. He took it out and set the box aside.

“Zoë Charlotte Porter,” he said in the most serious of tones as he took her left hand and held the ring up. “Will you do me the honor of becoming my daughter?”

Her blushing daughter looked from the ring to Miriam as severaloohs and awwscame from the tables close by, and then back to the ring, but didn’t look up at Eli as she bit at her lip. “Could I call you Daddy then?” She reached out and lightly touched the ring with her free hand, saying in a small voice so unlike her usually gregarious daughter, “I’ve never had a daddy before.”

Miriam’s eyes pricked with tears, and she almost couldn’t hold them back when Eli peeked his head down to meet her daughter’s downcast eyes. “Zoë, I could think of nothing I’d love to be called more.”

Zoë glanced over at Miriam. “Can I mom? Can I be Eli’s daughter?”

Miriam held in her trembling lips as she nodded. She couldn’t say anything for the lump in her throat. But several tears tracked down her cheek as Eli slipped the ring on Zoë’s ring finger, and then raised her hand and gave it a light kiss. “Perfect.”

A broad smile spread over Zoë’s face as she first admired the ring and then jumped up from her seat and seemed to almost knock Eli over when she wrapped him up in a hug. “I love you, Dr. Eli…Daddy.” But then she pulled away from him and frowned. “Wait, but what about my mom?”

“Well…”

Miriam’s pulse raced as Eli brought out another velvet box—this one a dark midnight blue. Then he said in a conspiratorial whisper to Zoë, “Do you think if I asked her to marry me, she would?” Eli smiled up at Miriam as Zoë vigorously nodded.

“She talks about you—a lot. So, I think she likes you okay.”

“Oh, she does. Hmm…” He grinned over at Miriam before addressing her daughter again. “Well, shall I ask her then?”

“I think so,” she answered as Eli got up and moved around his chair to Miriam’s side.

“Miriam.” He went down on one knee again as the diners around them went quiet. “It took me a long time—five years to be exact—to know I had my future sitting right outside my office door.”

He opened the box where a single diamond solitaire in a platinum setting sat nestled in a bed of satin. “And I don’t want to wait any longer to have you as my forever.” He took the ring from the box, then set the box on the table before taking her unresisting left hand. “So, Miriam Lanette Porter,” he said, slipping the ring just over her nail. “Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife.”

Miriam sat speechless for several seconds as she gazed into his loving eyes.

“Mom,” Zoë said, leaning over the table. “You’re supposed to say yes.”

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